Global Findings for the 2011 State of Cloud Survey

Oct 05, 2011

While computing changes constantly, most shifts are simple changes that don’t require organizations to change the core of how they work. Not so with cloud computing. While promising significant benefits, it requires organizations to change how they approach IT.

To better understand how organizations are dealing with these changes, Symantec commissioned the 2011 State of Cloud Survey, which gives a unique perspective on how organizations are adopting cloud computing. One of the largest surveys of its kind, it includes responses from 5,300 organizations across 38 countries.

In all, the survey asked more than 130 questions about a wide range of cloud computing areas,including:

• Public Software-as-a-Service• Hybrid Infrastructure or Platform-as-a Service• Public Infrastructure or Platform-as-a-Service• Private Infrastructure or Platform-as-a-Service

The most striking findings are based on the process of moving to the cloud. First, organizations are conflicted about security, rating it both as a goal and a concern with moving to the cloud. This is unique to cloud computing. This may sound confusing, but we think this makes sense. Done correctly, security can be improved in a cloud environment. But it doesn’t happen without planning and careful attention during the implementation phase.

Second, the survey found – perhaps not surprisingly – that organizations do not feel their computing staff is fully up to the challenge of moving to the cloud. This is a new area and computing professionals who have experience with cloud services are few and far between – less than 25 percent of total staff.

Resulting from this lack of readiness, the third survey finding is that while interest in cloud is high, few organizations have crossed the finish line, despite tremendous interest (and media coverage). Fourth, among those organizations that have completed the move to cloud, there is a striking gap between the goals they expected to achieve and what they actually achieved.